07.19.12
CAHY: Wage stagnation, more proof
Pointed to in a Krugman piece, another graph showing compensation stagnation for most workers as national productivity grew. The nut sentence: “The divergence of pay and productivity has meant that many workers were not benefiting from productivity growth — the economy could afford higher pay but it was not providing it.”
The conclusion: Stagnation cannot be fixed without the re-establishment of “decent and improved labor standards” and “raising the minimum wage to half the average wage.”
From the Economic Policy Institute here.
You’ll notice the slope of the line for productivity gain for most of the war on terror years actually increases a bit.
And that for most of the Vietnam War years, despite the social upheaval and cost — which created no deficits in the way the war on terror has despite costing many more American lives — wages mirrored growth in productivity.